The goal of this research was to identify parenting styles among families from contexts of high social vulnerability. We therefore interviewed 62 teenagers of both sexes between the ages of 12 and 17 and their respective families. Research tools employed a scale of demandingness and responsiveness applied collectively to the teenagers and an analysis was undertaken of documents from the families' files. The main findings showed that such families were normally large and varied in structure and that the teenagers perceived their parents to be more authoritative than negligent.